The Power of Visualisation

What is it about visualisation that gives it potential for influencing the way things are? The answer is that it invokes the mind's creative power, that mental dynamo that produces not only great works of art, music and literature, but also great works of science and technology.
Everything men and women create in the world out there has its origins in the world in here. If we can visualise something, imagine it in our inner world as if it is happening in the outer world, then we have begun the process that may lead to bringing it about.
A clear example of this is the way we can use visualisation in psychotherapy and psychological counselling. If, for instance, I am trying to help someone who is shy when speaking in public, or highly nervous about a forthcoming examination, I will put them into a relaxed state and then invite them to visualise, in as much detail as possible, an actual occasion which arouses an unwanted emotion. The next step is to prompt them to visualise themselves as operating effectively on that occasion and maintaining their mental and physical relaxation.
Several repetitions of this exercise, over a period of days or weeks, leads to a marked decrease in the emotion concerned and a marked increase in positive states of mind. When stressful real-life situations actually present themselves, the person copes with them much more calmly and effectively.
Another example of the use of visualisation occurs in the Alexander Technique - that re-education in bodily use that brings so many benefits ( see, for example, Wilfred Barlow's The Alexander Technique). Having manually adjusted the client's faulty posture and physical movement, the Alexander teacher instructs him or her to from now on, consciously and frequently, direct the body to follow the corrected pattern of bodily use. Thus, at its simplest, a client who has been slumping badly may remind him or herself to "think up". No heroic attempt is made to hold the body in the correct position. The mind gives the instruction, and little by little the body absorbs the message. The process of absorption is greatly speeded up if assisted by visualisation. The client silently repeats the direction "think up", and at the same time visualises him or herself standing or moving in the correct way. From within, the client is visually identifying the physical space that the body should occupy and the body, over time, moves into this space.
Another example is the way an artist will visualise the effect he or she wishes to capture on canvas, or an architect visualises the outlines of a complete building, or an inventor a piece of functional machinery. The creation is first of all seen with the mind's eye, and then translated into concrete reality. There is nothing 'unscientific' about this. It is simply how the creative mind, for many people, actually works. We don't know the precise psychological processes involved, or where this marvellous gift of imagination (non-visual as well as visual) comes from. But we know that it exists, and that it is responsible for the greater part of the changes, good and bad, that men and women have wrought in their environment.

From the book "The Meditation Handbook" by David Fontana